![Картинка цитаты](/source/img/quote/1721824656.webp)
This man was trained. He could speak pretty near any language there was in the world. He had to brag about it. He was brought up under the strict--strict sect of the Pharisees, and his father was a Pharisee. Later he was "a Pharisee of the Pharisees," and that means that he was--he was absolutely the--the strictest of the Pharisees. He was a great fellow. And he had authority, and he was smart.
His father had give him an education under the best teacher there was in all the land, Gamaliel, at that time the most notable teacher of any of the schools. Paul become that type of a man. He learned every language. He learned psychology. He learned all the different things that there is in--to be learned in that way. And he leaned hard to the--to the tabernacle of the--of the priests and with the--the great men. And he was going about making havoc of the Church.
Listen to this same man with all this education after he had received Christ, listen to what he said, how strong and great he was, he had to forget it. He had to realize that he could not depend upon hisself. He had to realize that his education was nothing. He had to realize that all of the training he'd ever had, he'd have to forget everything he's ever trained for. Listen at him now:
I, brethren, when I come to you,... not with the excellency of speech,... of wisdom... (See?)... declaring unto you the testimony of God.
I never come to you to tell you, "Now, I am Doctor Saul from the School of So-and-so, I am the--out of the great sect of this denomination. I never come to you like that."
For I am determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
There, listen at the testimony of a man like that. "I'm determined to know nothing about your abilities. I know that there's nothing in you, and I'm only determined to know one thing that I see in you, that's Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The crucified Saviour among you, that's all I'm going to recognize."
Listen to him.
And I was with you in... (greatness? In what?)... weakness, and in fear, and... much trembling.
Could you imagine a man, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, a teacher of the teachers, a man that was trained from childhood for the ministry to be a eloquent man that was smart and brilliant, to come before a class of people like the Corinthians and say, "I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and much trembling"... A man who turned the world upside-down, the greatest missionary that's ever been known, confessed that he come in weakness, not as a trained scholar, but in the weakness and fear, lest he'd step off the path somewhere, in much trembling, because he could not trust in his own ability.
The reason he was fearing, not because he was scared of anything; but he was scared he would displease God in some way, that he'd get his own ability mixed up into it; something that he'd learned, that he'd... He was telling them that, "I didn't come to you with these excellency of speech; I come to you in fear that I would come that way; but I come to you knowing nothing but Christ and Him crucified."
And I come to you in fear, and weakness, and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching was not with the enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and... power:
Listen to this man who was a warrior had stripped hisself. Amen. If there's anything that our schools needs today, if it's anything our churches needs today, is a stripping of themselves, of your own thoughts and your own abilities. Strip yourselves before God unless you would try to do something within yourselves.
William Branham, Sermon «Perfect Strength By Perfect Weakness»
https://en.branham.ru/sermons/61-1119